Published online Aug 6, 2014. doi: 10.4292/wjgpt.v5.i3.169
Revised: December 31, 2013
Accepted: May 8, 2014
Published online: August 6, 2014
Processing time: 295 Days and 10.8 Hours
Core tip: Long after their description, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease (IBD) are still treated but not cured. This somber spell has now begun to be broken by genetic discoveries and by the study of the human microbiome. The former have uncovered hundreds of genetic variants lending support to the clinical hint that IBD is a syndrome encompassing discrete polymorphisms of the immune response pathways, each requiring a personalized approach. The latter has shown the microbiome to be a cell universe which, if disrupted, can provoke IBD together with a myriad of disturbances apparently unrelated with the gut. A frame of mind seeing the IBDS as embedded into a plethora of genetically linked immune disturbances must fuel IBD research from now on.